AVAILABLE FOR

$49.99

RATING

Introduction

Most Apple applications turn out to be inconsistent and inadequate when it comes to calendar apps but not this time. With it’s second release out now, Fantastical 2 for iOS has taken the market surveyors off their feet. It does not only provide users a clean list, but offers tremendous support on different calendar systems to them.

And, if you want to add an event to your ever increasing list, all you have to do is type in the details. Fantastical 2 will make sure to adjust it to your schedule accordingly.

Developed by Flexibits, the 2.0 release launched back in 2015 was termed as a complete replacement for the official Apple Calendar and it really sent the bar high for similar competitors. Most of the rising concerns and queries of customers were precisely catered in the 2.1 update release. However, the team took a meddling step forth and took things a lot further on with the 2.2 update release. This surge of updates is what made Fantastical 2 take the position up of a strong contender in the market.

The 2.1 release incorporated the syncing of reminders with date/time settings in graphical calendar view while the 2.2 release give an extra edge to the process by enabling users to set mutually agreeable times adding a layer of confirmation to schedules. Other features such as adding multi-event drag & drop feature, simultaneous display and enhanced time-zone support and also printing were also added giving the app more eloquent levels of functionality.

The Best Replacement for Calendar

Previously, I have been using the Apple Calendar to mark my meetings and schedules, but I had no regrets when I planned to shift all my reminders to the Fantastical 2 application. For many individual Fantastical 2 can be a great replacement, specifically for those who don’t wish to miss out on appointments, birthdays or reminders.

I won’t consider Fantastical 2 as the only lone calendar on my list; though, I have set it on default. But, that’s just me because I tweak around with a number of applications day in and day out. Your case might be a lot different. One of the most credible feature that I found about this application is that it is quite simple and easy to use.

Above all, it keeps all your information secure and in one place represented through a streamline view. No more hunting for information, no more leaps and bounds. It has everything that a normal calendar has to offer you with additional feature that cannot be overlooked.

Human Understandable & Adaptive

One of the great things about using Fantastical is that it is quite user-friendly and naturally adaptive. It contains a unique feature which quite well integrated within the application. If you want to add an event, you can do so by simply clicking the “+” button and typing in the details of the event just as if you were having a discussion with a real life person.

“Please schedule a meeting with Tom of Jargons Limited at 5.45 PM on every Thursday also notify 15 minutes prior to each meeting”

This little statement will allow the application to simply gather the details it requires and will schedule your meeting with Mr. Tom at 5.45 PM every Thursday. Also, it will adapt to the feature of notifying you 15 minutes prior to every meeting. If that’s not great then I don’t know what is.

This feature is way better than the natural language processing feature that Apple’s own Calendar offers. However, the only downside with Fantastical 2 here is that it does not integrate with contacts even though it schedules a meeting with them. You have to include them yourself.

Visually Stunning Menu Bar

If you were looking to transform your calendar to give a stellar view on your Menu Bar, then you won’t be sorry with the new Fantastical 2. It has almost every element to make your mac desktop aesthetically pleasing for you. Fantastical 2.0 does not live in the Yosemite world, it has enhanced itself to greater level of design.

The visual theme comprises of an alluring red calendar widget structured right above a dark themed list view of reminders and appointments. It is stranger to those who are not used to the OS X. Well, the OS has taken another shift now to a version 11 so there is a hard chance that you may have missed out on the theme.

The new menu bar is smooth in process and is fun and interactive to play around with. It makes scrolling easy and fast for users and is kind of an interesting watch for most users. Fantastical 2 approach to anchoring menu bar is indeed praiseworthy. It keeps the the app active through menu bar for easy referencing while navigation through the desktop.

Highly Customizable Features

I really like the toggle feature as it allows user to shift between the light theme and the dark theme in list views. Here you have the complete liberty to set the theme that is pleasing to your eyes. If you are more of a night user, you can always go for a the bright theme.

It provides a keyboard shortcut Command+0 that allows you to observe the full calendar instead of the mini-calendar version of it. In my opinion, having two calendars on the dock at the same instance becomes a cumbersome task. It just doesn’t make sense as it becomes pretty redundant. Icon size are also shrinkable and they can be easily adjusted to your preferences.

The Calendar widget feature is just outclass. It works perfectly smooth on my iPhone and includes a month view into a specific compact space. It helps me and my fellows to plan interviews on daily basis, keep track of schedules and track sport events as we are into it quite a lot. Above all that, 3D Touch on the app icon just takes a clean sweep and make the calendar worth every penny.

Personal Verdict

I simply love the natural language processing feature as it makes me feel as if I am talking to my very own personal assistant. The application includes a “Time to Leave” alert as well which sends out a notification based on traffic insights so the user can reach their specified destination on time. However, this feature didn’t really work in India due to navigational issues. So, overall the feature was failing to perform on either, Fantastical 2 or Apple Calendar.

We found Google Calendar a lot more useful here with the navigation. But, when it comes to look and feel, the desktop app was downright ugly and does not even include syncing non-Google Calendars to the application which was a low blow.

Fantastical 2 is just amazing in so many other ways that we can’t jam up everything in a single article. Go ahead, download it and give it a try… I am sure you will simply fall in love with the app 🙂